I wish Obama had put out a statement saying something like this ...

Ditto bravo. Too bad it didn't happen.

Samanthagate | Hendrik Hertzberg

Imagine this scene. A wannabe autocrat faces a legislature dominated by his political opposition. He fixes elections with gusto, throws his opponents in the jail with regularity, and an opposition leader is even viciously assaulted on the floor of the senate. All to no avail. It seems the people like the idea of divided government. So then tyrannus rex decides to get still more ruthless—the opposition is all enmeshed in some criminal conspiracy, his sock puppet press starts to announce. And one day, law officers charge onto the floor of the legislature as it is in session to serve warrants on a large block of members, and as it turns out just the members he’s most eager to get rid of. Lukashenko’s Belarus, perhaps? Or some forgotten banana republic?

Well, no, actually. This all really happened in George W. Bush’s America. In one of the fifty states. Indeed, in the first state by roll call: Alabama.

Alice Martin’s War

Inside the grass-roots field operation of Barack Obama, who is transforming the way political campaigns are run

The Machinery of Hope : Rolling Stone

Thousands of people took to the streets Saturday in Basra, protesting deteriorating security in the southern city where Iraqi forces assumed responsibility for safety last December.

Residents are becoming increasingly alarmed, saying that killings, kidnappings and other crimes have increased significantly since British forces turned over responsibility for Basra at the end of last year.

Basra Iraqis Protest Eroding Security

Reason Magazine:

The Wire co-creator Ed Burns talks about failure in the drug war, public education, the war in Iraq, and police strategies.

'Someone Has To Start Wondering What the F Is Going On.'

Good afternoon Mr. Chairman and Commissioners. Thank you for the opportunity to address you on network management by high-speed Internet Access Providers. A brief summary of my main points is in order here.

First, providing Internet Access implies adherence to a set of standard technical protocols and technical practices that are essential for the world-wide Internet to work for all its users.

Second, variances from those standard protocols and practices damages the Internet as a whole, and all of its users.

Third, there are standard, industry-accepted processes for resolving problems that come up as the Internet evolves, including disclosure of measurement data, discussion and joint definition of new protocols, etc.

Because of these points, Comcast's secretive attempt to apply non-standard management practices creates serious problems. Survival of the Internet requires that Internet Access Providers continue to take a proper, transparent role as participants in the Internet.

While I would like to see that happen without regulation, Comcast's deception of its own customers in this matter suggests to me a need for stronger intervention that will discourage such Internet Access Providers with exclusive franchises from the temptation to degrade the Internet by selectively damaging their customers' ability to use the full capabilities of the Internet.

Internet Access Providers do not create the Internet for their customers, instead they provide access to a larger collective system, of which they are a small part.

David Reed FCC statement

Draft SP 800-63 Revision 1: E-Authentication Guideline is available for public comment. It supplements OMB guidance, by providing technical guidelines for the design of electronic systems for the remote authentication of citizens by government agencies. The revision represents an expansion and reorganization of the original document, broadening the discussion of technologies available to agencies, and giving a more detailed discussion of assertion technologies. Changes intended to clarify the pre-existing requirements are also included in the revision. Comments will be accepted until April 10, 2008. Comments should be forwarded via email to eauth-comments@nist.gov.

DRAFT: Electronic Authentication Guidelines

Over the past eight years, in the name of reviving Russia after the tumult of the 1990s, Mr. Putin has waged an unforgiving campaign to clamp down on democracy and extend control over the government and large swaths of the economy. He has suppressed the independent news media, nationalized important industries, smothered the political opposition and readily deployed the security services to carry out the Kremlin’s wishes.

While those tactics have been widely recognized, they have been especially heavy-handed at the local level, in far-flung places like Nizhny Novgorod, 250 miles east of Moscow. On the eve of a presidential election in Russia that was all but fixed in December, when Mr. Putin selected his close aide, Dmitri A. Medvedev, as his successor, Nizhny Novgorod stands as a stark example of how Mr. Putin and his followers have established what is essentially a one-party state.

Putin’s Iron Grip on Russia Suffocates Opponents

If it's Sunday, it's Meet the Press, where newsmakers go to be grilled by one of television news's most respected figures. If moments like the above exchange between Russert and Richardson seem unhelpful—even ridiculous—to you, rest assured that Washington thinks otherwise. Tim Russert, it is said, is tough—supertough—and wily, too, like a knuckleball pitcher. As Jim Geraghty put it, "Every once in a while a Washington media institution really does matter, and Meet the Press is one of them." Why? "Because Tim Russert, without commercial interruption, will throw hardballs and curveballs for a solid half hour, and standard delaying tactics won't work." So Meet the Press thrives, delighting precisely the sort of person who doesn't realize that a hardball is a kind of ball whereas a curveball is a kind of pitch.

Actually, the balls Russert favors may be hard, but the pitches he throws aren't curveballs, which go someplace useful. They're sillyballs, which go somewhere pointless.

The Unbearable Inanity of Tim Russert

There is a hushed worry on the minds of many supporters of Senator Barack Obama, echoing in conversations from state to state, rally to rally: Will he be safe?

In Painful Past, Hushed Worry About Obama